The Walking Dead, Episode 3.05: "Say the Word"

After last week's high-mark episode, I was a bit prepared for a bit of an emotional cool down. After all, in episodic television, series cannot and do not stay at a fever pitch… it's just not sensible. But, what baffled me about tonight's episode was that it was, surprisingly, not focused. Instead, it chose to meander through a number of separate and somewhat minor plot threads. But, when you toss out this week's major revelation in the cold open - that the Governor still harbors his undead daughter, Penny - and you end the hour with a bit of an anti-climactic reveal - that The Episode's Big Secret is essentially a zombie-tinged gladiator match starring Merle - you can't help but be a bit disappointed.

But if nothing else, we at least got some movement on the one plot element that started to drag - the "Shall we go?"/"Shall we stay?" tug-of-war between Andrea and Michonne. Now that Michonne has actually left - with her sword! - the Woodbury civility that's held her back can be shed, and we can actually see her more in her element…. which we got to see a bit of in the enjoyable "target practice" scene, in which Michonne slices and dices her way through the walkers for the night's wrestling festivities. (That scene must've eaten up a good chunk of the show's CGI budget… or maybe AMC's willing to loosen up the purse strings, now that The Walking Dead is getting better ratings than most network series.) Heck, let's watch that scene again!



Oh, and then there's the zombie gladiator stuff… which merits a little bit of fun, if only to see Michael Rooker kicking ass, which is pretty cool. (As was Merle's bayonet-hand-stab-to-the-head in the earlier scene when he and his crew went to collect some new recruits for the fight.) Still, it's a little nonsensical, as Andrea rightly calls the Guv'ner out on… despite the intimate relationship play that he's trying to pull.

Meanwhile, over at Le Prison, the order of the day is to get some formula for the baby. It's a relatively straightforward B-plot, as Maggie and Daryl - ahem, make that PONCHO DARYL!!! - raid an abandoned daycare and come across their biggest enemy to date… a possum! Okay, that's an exaggeration… but still, not much tension tonight. We also learned, via Carl, that his baby sister has no name as of yet, although the first name of every dead or missing female to date is up for consideration. Shall we start placing bets on which one will be selected?

And then, there's Rick and his post-shock quest to find Lori's body… or something. This is a hard plot thread to gauge, if only because there's no real focus to it, outside of the primal, scattered, and emotional state of Rick… which leads to some gone-bananas slaying in the prison corridors, a tense scene with Glen (who tries to reason with Rick), and a head-shot/stomach-stabbing of a gorging walker in the ill-fated boiler room. Ending it with an out-of-the-blue phone call that seemed straight out of the Lost playbook didn't help matters, either. Hopefully, next week will provide a good payoff for that… and maybe a more cohesive episode as well.

Random notes:

• This week's director: It's none other than Greg Nicotero, the key mastermind behind the show's makeup effects. This is his second episode at the helm… and in addition, he's directed both series of Walking Dead webisodes, Season 2's "Torn Apart" and Season 3's "Cold Storage".
• Tonight's kill count: No humans (whew!) and 12-plus walkers, 6 of which were taken out by Michonne.
• Tonight's kill of the night: Definitely Michonne's head stomping… further proving that she doesn't need her sword to kick some butt!
• Just a heads-up: Next week's write-up might be posted later in the evening than usual (or, worst-case scenario, Monday night), due to personal obligations. But something will be posted eventually! With that in mind, here's the preview clip for next week:

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.04: "Killer Within"

Last night, I was with my college-aged brother and a couple of his buddies, and The Walking Dead came up in conversation. One of said buddies asked, "Did you watch last week's episode?" "Yeah," I said. "I thought it was pretty cool." He responded, "It sucked! There were, like, only 5 zombies in the entire episode!" Now, granted, not every episode can have zombie fun… after all, this is as much a survival drama as it is a horror showcase. Nonetheless, here's an episode that works very, very hard to bring walkers back into play, by way of destroying the peace and security of our wonderful prison… not to mention the very structure of our group. But we'll get to that last part later.

First, let's quickly backtrack to Woodbury, where we keep the suspicion vibe about the Governor going right where we left off, as Michonne finds bullet holes and blood on the newly acquired Army trucks. This leads to the first of several sweet-talking sequences from the Guv'ner tonight, as he tries to have a soldier like her stay on board. The major thread in Woodbury tonight, though, deals with Andrea providing Merle with information on Hershel's farm, in an effort to help Merle reunite with Daryl. This leads to a stellar conversation between the Governor and Merle, set against a makeshift driving range placed right on the town border. Merle asks permission to leave Woodbury to find Daryl.. and the Governor tries to instill doubt with every sentence he utters. I loved this scene because it's a true battle between the two most powerful men in the town… and yet Merle has very little pull against the Governor. Granted, the Governor offers his assistance if Merle can get some solid intel… but it plays off more like a stalling action than anything. Still, the show has set up the elements needed to help dovetail the two disparate halves of our show back together.

The prison occupies most of tonight's episode, thanks primarily to the walkers' human-assisted overrun of the grounds. The brief cold open sets up the chaos effectively: an unidentified person cuts the prison gate's chains loose, and lures walker in with a freshly-killed deer. When the walkers come crashing through the prison courtyard - and ultimately, in our heroes' cell block - suspicion immediately turns to the two prisoners left over from Episode 2, Axel and Oscar. After all, they can't stand the living conditions in the cell block that Rick has kept them to - seeing their fellow former prisoners as corpses is too disturbing to bear. But, Rick won't hear it - there's very little room for trust outside the gang. But, as it turns out, it was neither of them: it was actually Andrew, the prisoner that Rick had locked out and said, "You'd better run." Rick, Daryl and Oscar find him by the generators when they attempt to shut them down to shut off the blaring horns… but Andrew shoots down Oscar, and then gives up his gun, in a bold attempt to secure trust from Rick.

But that's not the only casualties tonight… not by a long shot. For starters, let's talk about T-Dog's unfortunate bite that he incurred during the opening walker attack. As T-Dog and Carol scurry around the corridors of the prison, the two find themselves surrounded by walkers… but T-Dog makes a heroic sacrifice and lets himself get chewed up by zombies in order to let Carol escape. Farewell, T-Dog… we shall miss you.

Meanwhile, Lori, Maggie and Carl, who are also scurrying around the corridors, encounter a perfectly-timed complication: Lori's going into labor! It's certainly a chaotic time for this to happen; fortunately, our trio camps out in the boiler room to bring the new baby into the world, despite not having Hershel around… or even Carol, who practiced on a corpse for this last week. Lori attempts to push… but blood comes out… and that's when the episode makes its tragic turn. Lori says she's not losing this baby, and that's why she asks Maggie to cut her open and get the baby out, even if it means she'll die in the process. And thus begins the devastating final act of the episode, as Maggie copes to make the incision. But when Lori says her final words to Carl - "You are going to beat this world!" - it's some of the most gut-wrenching work this show's ever produced.

But it's not just the tear-jerking content that makes this scene. After the cut is made, there's the haunting 15 seconds or so where Maggie has the newborn baby in her hands and the baby hasn't cried… for those few moments, you fear the worst has happened. But the baby's alive, and Maggie says they have to go… but Carl is adamant about finishing the job, lest she turn. The sheer sadness of the situation - "She's my mom", Carl says - combined with the cold, silent way Carl exits the boiler room after the gunshot - makes for a moment of television that only this show could accomplish. (The juxtaposition of Rick's talk with Carl - "No more kid stuff" - brings it all home.)

The final scene provides an oddly effective bookend to the episode, as the baby's cry silences Rick's commanding in the courtyard. For a moment, the peaceful quiet that we heard just prior to the start of the walker riot has returned… but at an immense cost. And to see a show like The Walking Dead kill off its characters in an uncompromisingly brutal fashion is affirming to the storytelling intentions of the series. Yes, it whittles down the cast quite a bit… but this is a show where every day is a matter of life or death, and those risks need to be reinforced in the storytelling. And for that, "Killer Within" earns its place as the best episode of the season thus far.

Random notes:

• Tonight's top kill: I thought Daryl's stab to the skull was going to be the winner… until it was followed mere seconds later by Glen's slicing of a skull in half like a cantaloupe!
• Tonight's director: Oddly enough, it's Guy Ferland, the same director from last week's episode. Rare is it where a director helms back-to-back episodes of a series (24 excepted), but here we are.
• Tonight's kill count: 3 humans, 24 walkers. Top killer: Rick, with 6+ walkers.
• Tonight's movie promos: Only a couple were shown tonight: Skyfall (An exclusive look at Javier Bardem's villain! Oooooh!), and the impressive-looking Hitchcock.
• Glen and Maggie, sitting in a prison watchtower… K-I-S-S-I-N-G...
• It was a cheesy effect, but I liked the editing of the Governor's final golf club hit leading directly into Rick's zombie head shot in the cell block.
• Another effective filmmaking effect in this episode: the reveal of the walkers in the prison when the camera rotates around Carl.
• FYI, we are halfway through the first half of Season 3. New episodes will air until December 2nd, and then the show will take a break until the week after the Super Bowl (just like last season).
• Next week: Glen and the prisoners be digging some graves, in this preview clip:

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.03: "Walk with Me"

Tonight's installment of The Walking Dead is a bit gutsy for the show…and no, I'm not talking about the guts of that National Guard soldier who was split in half. This, the 19th episode of the series, is the first that doesn't feature the core pack of survivors at all. Instead, we get an entire hour with Andrea and Michonne, after the brief few moments with them in the season premiere. Now, a strong setup episode for this pairing would be plenty interesting in itself… but by stacking the introduction of The Governor and Woodbury on top of this, and by reintroducing Michael Rooker's beloved character Merle to the show in full force, this makes for a jam-packed episode that never flags.

The episode starts with a helicopter crash, which catches the eyes of Andrea and Michonne… but when they hop on over to check it out, they soon see the Governor and his cronies show up to evaluate the aftermath. Of the two soldiers in the helicopter, one solider's still relatively intact, and the other? Well… he's in halfsies, in an astonishingly gory shot. (Seriously, are there any limitations to the blood and guts that this show can get away with? TV-14-LV my patootie…) Before you know it, Team Woodbury takes out a few zombies at the crash site (Baseball bat to the skull for the win!)… and Michonne makes the ultimate sacrifice to keep her and Andrea alive: by decapitating her two 'pets'. (This scene quickly answered one of the burning questions I had for this season: How was AMC going to afford a season's worth of visual effects to remove Michonne's pets' arms? Yay, budget consciousness!)

Speaking of missing limbs: Merle's back!!! Just knowing that Michael Rooker is on board as a regular cast member this season is exciting enough for me… and his entrance during the crash site sequence with HIS BUTTKICKING STABBY BAYONET HAND made me just giddy! The episode makes the wise choice to give us some quality Merle time, as he delivers a nice soliloquy to the two ladies in the Woodbury infirmary. (We also get a fleeting shot of Merle's arm stump, to appease our taste for lost body parts.) Plus, Merle nets the quote of the night during his speech, when talking about who he can trust these days: "I think I'd piss my pants if some stranger come walking up with his mitts in his pockets!"

But as we soon find out, this man without a right hand is, in fact, the right-hand man for The Governor, whom fans have been eagerly waiting to see on the series. He's played on the show by David Morrissey, a frequent British TV actor (including The Red Riding Trilogy and the original UK version of State of Play), but who's also had some experience in assorted genre films, including Centurion, The Reaping and, most infamously, the male lead in 2006's Basic Instinct 2. (Remember that movie? That's a thing that happened!) Right away, he sets the tone for the character: a slick sweet-talker of a leader who's definitely up to no good. Sure, he's managed to put together a seemingly peaceful community where people can return to some sense of normalcy. But then again, he's not too keen on giving Andrea and Michonne back their weapons or letting them leave… and he's perfectly willing to take down 10 or so National Guardsmen to get their weapons, food, and supplies. Oh, and then there's that pesky secret lab, complete with Milton, the Reserved Yet Still Creepy Mad Scientist. (Note to self: Don't invite Milton to breakfast. How he turns grub time into a fact-finding mission is just off-putting!) And let's not forget the end-of-episode secret room, replete with 22 heads in tanks… including those of Michonne's pets and the captured soldier. (The Governor is just trying to put together his own version of Futurama, right? Right?)

Now, I should iterate that I'm not a reader of the comic… I'm going into this show cold, without any knowledge of what the Governor's ultimate plans are. (If you are a comic reader, though, be sure to scroll down to the very bottom of this post.) But with such a setup, of course there's going to be plenty of conflict in play… but right now, it's mostly between Andrea and Michonne. As of right now, Andrea is pretty fond of Woodbury, and the comfort it provides: After 8 months of wandering, the setting is relieving, to say the least. Michonne doesn't necessarily agree… after all, you really think you can keep her away from her beloved sword? There's a little bit of conflict between the Governor and Andrea in that final scene, as she quickly learns that the Governor's not one to let his guard down, even to reveal his real name. Give it time, though, and this will certainly blossom into something much more intimidating.

But in the end, the great thing about tonight's episode is that it means we're going to have two strong sets of stories/settings to switch between, in the prison and Woodbury… which is especially important, given we have an expanded 16-episode season to fill out. This is new territory for the series, in terms of balancing plots… but if nothing else, the chances of pointless filler in Season 3 has plummeted significantly. And given we have two magnetic new characters in The Governor and Michonne to help drive this second plot, this is certainly going to be something much more exciting and interesting than "the B-plot" of Season 3. Heck, I wonder if this is going to make the prison stuff pale by comparison. :-) But that's where next week's balancing act will come into play.

Random notes:

• Tonight's director: Guy Ferland, a frequent director from the late, great series The Shield. He has only one major movie credit to his name: 2004's Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. This is his fourth episode of the series: among his previous episodes was the first-season finale.
• Tonight's movie ads: The Man with the Iron Fists, Flight, Skyfall (a Q-centric TV spot!), and Life of Pi.
• Best make-up effect of the night: As already stated, the split-in-half solder wins by a landslide… although I did also like the show of the Governor's fingers inside the mouth of Michonne's pet's decapitated (yet still active) head.
• Tonight's kill count, courtesy of Story Sync: 9 humans and 9 walkers. Merle leads with 4 walker kills!
• Next week: How will the show be able to juggle the prison and Woodbury stories? Well, we'll just have to see… to tide you over until then, here's a prison scene from next week's episode:

Bonus Fun Time! Thanks to the miraculous power of my DVR, I've transcribed the commercial break card from the 29-minute mark of the episode for your pleasure. So, here are Robert Kirkman's 5 favorite changes from the comic book to the TV series:


5) Morgan's wife. Showing her in the show was such a powerful and emotional scene that I simply never even considered! I suck!
4) Herd attacking Hershel's farm. In the comic Hershel put a gun to Rick's head and said, "You guys can't live here!" and Rick gathered everyone up and they left. No barn burning, no thousands of walkers attacking, no leaving Andrea for dead.
3) Sophia was in the barn! Spoiler alert… after 103 issues of the comic book… Sophia is alive and well! Her death in the show has affected all of the characters in meaningful ways.
2) Rick kills Shane. In the comic, Shane brings Rick out to the woods to kill him-- and before he can do it CARL shoots Shane in the neck. In the show, when Rick knifes him it's such a dramatic payoff, it's really the moment where Rick emerges as someone who will do whatever has to be done to survive… even kill his best friend
1) Daryl Friggin' Dixon. He's not even in the comic, folks.

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.02: "Sick"

Based solely on where we left off last week - with Hershel being bitten and Rick slicing off his leg like there was no tomorrow - and the title of this week's episode, I was all prepared for a big death episode for our beloved Hershel. And then, it didn't happen at all. In fact, the greatest pleasure of tonight's episode of The Walking Dead was its various shifts of power, and how the balance of life and death swung from one end to the other throughout the hour. In the end, we the audience were kept on our toes, and this season notches its second great episode this season.

Let's talk about our merry band of prisoners first. One of my concerns going into tonight's episode was that we were simply going to rehash a lot of the conflict material that we already burned through when Rick, Shane and company first landed on Hershel's farm at the beginning of Season 2… and even more so, that the show was going to linger on this conflict for quite some time. Boy, was I wrong on that count… but we'll get to that. But for most of the episode, you had to wonder who was going to win out: Rick or Tomas. It's a magnificent power struggle: At first, you think, "Well, it's the prisoners' prison; Rick doesn't stand a chance."… especially during the courtyard negotiations that quickly grow stale. But then, we find that not only do the prisoners have no idea what's been going outside the walls of the cafeteria - which they've been locked in for TEN MONTHS - but also that they have no idea how to successfully take walkers down (even after receiving an excellent crash course from Rick and Daryl). But then Tomas and company set aside their prison riot violence and truly get the hang of the head kills… destroying our gang's tactical advantage. And then, when Big Tiny gets scratched, Tomas takes him OUT and gets it done. (That wide shot of Big Tiny's corpse… sheesh, AMC is getting pretty permissive on the gore this year!)

And then comes the mass slaughter by the laundromat to repossess the second cell block for the prisoners. Tomas "accidentally" trying to take Rick out in the process is one thing, but Rick's response - immediately killing Tomas by way of a machete to the head - was nothing short of brutal, in one of those "Holy [bleep]!" moments that has you jumping off your couch and shouting at the TV. Those are the kinds of moments a TV fan lives for. If that wasn't enough, Rick manages to lock out another prisoner to his certain death before that final commercial break… effectively whittling down our 5-prisoner group to just 2 by episode's end. That's swift justice! But then again, when your wife gives us full permission to do what's necessary, why not? After all, in Lori's eyes, Rick isn't a killer… but given what we've seen in episodes past, is he?

This leaves Hershel's fight for life as the B-plot, but it still manages to explore some intriguing territory, as the female members of the group struggle with what to do. Last week showed us the efficiency of the group after months of banding together, and if anything, this week shows us exactly what life sacrifices our group is willing to make… and how rash and easy it is to make said decisions. Maggie's fine with letting Hershel go; Beth isn't ready (after all, Hershel saved her life last year); Carol feels responsible to take on Hershel's responsibilities in bringing Lori's baby into the world (as shown by her desire to practice on a walker corpse); and Carl… well, that final shot before the commercial break of him pointing his gun at Hershel says it all. (I've gotta admit, the way they're handling Carl and his accelerated maturity this season is one of the more tantalizing character bits this season. Killing two walkers with ease to break into the infirmary and get supplies… that's dang impressive.) Nonetheless, I did appreciate the show's restraint in *not* killing Hershel off just yet… but all those practical and visual effects to hide Scott Wilson's leg are going to break the bank eventually, so we'll have to see how long the show holds off on the kill.

But what I loved the most about this episode - and what inspires the most hope about this season - is just how swift the storytelling is, and how quickly it burns through material that could easily have been stretched out for several episodes. I almost think that this is the writing staff's way of saying to us, "You think we're gonna stretch this stuff out, like we did with Sophia and the farm? Nuh-uh! We're getting down to business!" If that's the case - and if the show can reasonably sustain this pace - then we're in for a roller coaster ride. And considering what we're due for in next week's show, I'm somewhat optimistic that they'll be able to pull it off.

Random notes:

• Let's get the big news out of the way first: AMC is no longer "not available on Dish"!!! Our long national nightmare is over… at least I won't be inundated any longer while watching one of AMC's shows.
• Tonight's director is Billy Gierhart, a longtime TV camera operator who's transitioned into directing. He's helmed episodes of The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, and Breakout Kings, among others. This is his third Walking Dead episode to date… and if IMDB is correct, he'll be directing the mid-season finale in December.
• This week's kill tallies: 3 humans, 30+ walkers. Rick and Tomas both notched 1 human and 5 walkers a piece.
• What are we having to eat today, T-Dog? "Canned beef, canned corn… canned cans!"
• I was kind of disappointed that Lori didn't head down to the infirmary herself… if only because she already knows the lay of the land.
• Walker of the week: The handcuff zombie, who's more than willing to rip his arm apart to get rid of those pesky cuffs, as we see at the 0:47 mark of this clip:
• Next week: Looks like we're getting a Michonne-centric hour… and more! Here's a very brief peek from the cold opening:

The Walking Dead, Episode 3.01: "Seed"

If there's one way to sum up what we know about the third season of The Walking Dead, it's "fan service". In the last few minutes of Season 2's finale, we were teased with the addition of Michonne and the prison - two elements of the comic book that fans have been eagerly awaiting to see on the series. On top of that, AMC has made no effort to hide the addition of The Governor (played by David Morrissey) to Season 3's cast… allowing for a potentially transformative year of the series (and one that should hopefully quite the show's most vocal detractors). On that end, tonight's season premiere was a reinvigorating hour chock-full of zombie action, while carefully setting up the board for this year's character arcs.

First, let's talk about that cold opening, in which our band of heroes rummage through the latest in a series of houses, looking for food, supplies, and anything of note. The complete lack of dialogue in this 5-minute sequence is impressive, allowing all sorts of plot developments - Lori's pregnancy progress; the lack of food, as evident in Carl's hankerin' for dog food and Daryl munching on an owl; Carl's increased proficiency with guns, not to mention his big honking silencer - to be expressed solely via visuals, while still allowing for a few good zombie kills in the process.

After the first commercial break - and the shiny new opening credits sequence - we get a quick info dump: winter has already come, and our gang has been nomadically roving from house to house with little success. It sets the stakes just enough so that, by the 10-minute mark, when Rick and Daryl finally find the prison they were oh-so-close to in the Season 2 finale, you can understand why everyone's easily on board with getting into the prison yards. Food, medicine, shelter, fields to plant the titular seed of the episode, and a heavily fortified, enclosed space… what's not to like, considering what they've been through and what they're currently dealing with? (Of course, there are some caveats to this… several of which manifest themselves before the hour's end.) However, I do think it's a wee bit ridiculous, given how close they were to the prison last season, that they didn't happen to find it sometime during the winter… I wish they had justified that a bit better.

And from there, the episode pretty much wrote itself: our heroes get past the prison fences, Rick shuts the prison gates camp out for the night, spend the next day getting into the prison while blasting off walkers in the process, and work their way into a safe cell block. For those who bemoaned the inert nature of last season's relaxed "down on the farm" mentality, the forward momentum in this first hour is nothing short of fun to watch. Plus, we got oodles of action sequences in the process, eschewing the tension of last season's "horror on the highway" set piece with kills, kills, and additional kills. (I especially like the subtle special effects incorporated into the wide shots… it speaks to the weathering of us viewers that every kill on the show these days don't have to be thrust into our faces.) Plus, we got to see walkers in prison riot gear! How cool was that? (The makeup award of the night went to the riot gear guard whose face skin peeled right off when Rick removed his mask… followed immediately by Rick splitting his skull in half like a coconut.) The only qualm - and it's a minor one - is that it's too bad that Frank Darabont is no longer with the show, since he has some experience with prisons. Nonetheless, the show certainly appears to be doing the prison setting just fine so far.

The tricky part of tonight's episode, from a writing perspective, was how to slip in all sorts of character beats amidst all this action. We got some major pieces into play: Lori's growing fears about delivering the baby, presented in a tender scene between her and Herschel; the developing relationships between Glen & Maggie, Daryl & Carol (hey, that rhymes!), and even Carl and Beth; and Carl's increased maturity and responsibilities. (Seriously, Carl rocking that silencer still gets to me.)

One thing that surprised me about tonight's show was just how little we saw of Michonne and Andrea, given how ecstatic the fans have been waiting to see her in action. For starters, we didn't see Michonne at all until the half-hour mark… and even then, it was the exact same scene that we saw in July's hour-long Talking Dead advertisement for the new season. We did get one additional scene between the two, which basically sets up that Andrea's not feeling well, that Andrea has managed to save Michonne's butt quite a bit during the winter (well, that will make for an interesting flashback episode!), and that Michonne isn't going to leave Andrea behind. I guess with all of tonight's fun at the prison, that didn't leave much time for the B-story, which is understandable… but I can only hope that their scenes will take on a bit more significance in the weeks ahead, if only for the hardcore fans' sake. If what I've heard from advance reviews of Season 3 is true, these two ladies don't even appear in next week's episode… which may not make certain viewers happy.

But then again, given all the balls that The Walking Dead put into play at the end of tonight's episode, that may not be a problem after all. Not only are plenty of walker inmates are still scurrying about in the prison, but Herschel got bit by one of 'em, too… leading to a heck of a scene in which Rick hacks off Herschel's leg with no pretense whatsoever. (Have the walkers gotten to AMC's Standards and Practices department? That's the only way that scene could've made it to air, right?) Oh, and there's a band of prisoner survivors to contend with! "Holy shit" indeed… and with that, see you next week!

Random notes:

• As AMC did with the back half of Season 2 (and this summer's run of Breaking Bad), the network has brought back their fun Story Sync feature, which provides trivia during the initial airing of each new episode. The main Story Sync page can be found here.
• Tonight's episode director is Ernest Dickerson, who started out as Spike Lee's cinematographer, then went on to direct his own movies such as Juice, Surviving the Game, Bulletproof, and the Snoop-Dogg-as-a-back-from-the-dead-1970s-gangster horror flick Bones. This is the sixth episode of The Walking Dead that he's directed thus far.
• Number of zombies killed in tonight's episode: at least 56, according to the Story Sync. Rick alone notched at least 19 kills.
• Number of times "NOT AVAILABLE ON DISH" was mentioned tonight: Only 2… one for Fear Fest (hosted by Kevin Smith), and one for Comic Book Men (also with Kevin Smith). AMC's putting all their eggs in the Silent Bob basket, eh?
• The Season 2 Blu-ray/DVD set is well worth your while, if only for the illuminating look at the chaos behind the season premiere. Long story short: Much of the footage was unusable, especially the first 15 minutes of the episode, which was replaced by the awkwardly-edited scene with Rick on the walkie-talkie. So, the first episode was chopped down to about a half-hour and combined with episode 2 to create the 90-minute season premiere.
• Wow, there were a lot of movie ads on tonight's show: Skyfall, Seven Psychopaths, Cloud Atlas, Paranormal Activity 4, and Alex Cross. Plus, we got zombie-themed ads for Microsoft Windows 8 (???) and RunForYourLives.com.
• Tonight's episode was brought to you by SMEAT!
• Let's talk about Talking Dead: CHRIS HARDWICK IS SHOUTING!!! OUCH!!! As much as I enjoy listening to his Nerdist podcasts, there is something as 'being too excited'. (Tonight's guests: showrunner/episode writer Glen Mazzara, and Michonne herself, Dania Gurira.)
• Next week: What to do with a victim like Herschel? Well, see for yourself, in AMC's preview clip for the next episode:

Fringe, Episode 5.01: "Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11"

Hello, and welcome to the start of Blood Brothers' fall TV coverage! We're kicking things off with the fifth-season premiere of Fringe, a show that has certainly merited the type of cult status that we look for in our TV slate. We've got other series on tap for later this fall, including the eagerly-anticipated third season of The Walking Dead and network TV's most beloved cult comedy, Community… but until then, we hope you'll enjoy the adventures of Walter, Peter, Olivia, and Astrid as they embark on what should be a wonderful final season.

But, to help set the context for my perspective on Fringe, let's trek back to the fall of 2008, when Fringe debuted on Fox. At that time, I was excited to say the least: For starters, this was J.J. Abrams' first science-fiction TV project since the breakout success of Lost in 2004, so expectations were reasonably high. Plus, you have to keep in mind that 2008's new fall shows were scarce, on account of the devastation caused by the 2007-2008 writers' strike. Because of that, Fringe became one of the fall's biggest new shows, seemingly by default. (Fox also used Fringe to kick off their 'Remote-Free TV' experiment, in which every episode of the first season would contain commercial breaks of only 60 to 90 seconds in length, allowing for only 8 to 9 minutes of ads per episode. It only lasted one year, but it was a bold attempt nonetheless.)

And while I watched and mostly enjoyed the first season, I was a little bit underwhelmed that the Fringe team decided not to build an elaborate mythology for the series… opting to rely heavily on the Case of the Week instead. (Blood Brother Matt referred to the series as "X-Files Jr." in that regard.) Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with that approach… and especially in the first season, Fringe's case-introducing cold openings were uniformly brilliant. But when it comes to hour-long TV dramas, I'm the type of viewer that prefers long-form story lines over standalone procedural-type episodes. Even more frustrating, Fringe had all of the elements in place to unfurl a grand science-fiction story, setting up all sorts of story elements (Massive Dynamic, Cortexiphan, The Pattern, etc.), but never exactly capitalizing on them… and I couldn't help but be a bit frustrated in the show.

But, at the very tail end of the first season, Fringe introduced a story element that would be far too big to ignore: an entire alternate universe! And slowly, but surely, Fringe started putting the pieces into place throughout its second season in order to provide the show that I had wanted in the first place. And then, on April Fools' Day 2010, the show that I know as Fringe debuted, with the late-season-two episode "Peter"… a flashback episode to 1985 that took us deep into the alternate universe and the early motivations of Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble). From there, the show took off narratively and creatively, shifting back and forth between universes with reckless abandon, and introducing multiple versions of its lead characters. Then, in Season 4, the show took its biggest narrative risk to date: by taking one of its leads, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), and completely removing him from existence. That's not exactly what I'd call 'user-friendly'… but for its loyal core audience (myself included), it was ridiculously risky and fascinating to watch. These were bold moves for a network series, and they won its audience's immense respect… but they don't necessarily lead to full network support, either. Over the past couple of years, the show's fate has sealed itself, first, Fringe was moved from a high-profile Thursday night slot to the doldrums of Fox Friday nights… and then, after its Friday-night ratings reached astonishing lows, it received a very real threat of cancellation this past spring.

Faced with the distinct possibility that the series would be cancelled, the episode's two-part finale worked overtime to ensure that the show wrapped up its loose ends: the Fringe Division received a ton of government funding; Lieutenant Broyles was promoted to Captain; Olivia revealed that she was pregnant with Peter's child… everything was coming up roses for our gang. With the exception of the slapped-together cliffhanger ending, in which September the Observer told Walter that "they are coming", everything seemed to be wrapped up nicely… which made for a bit of a problem when Fringe received an order for a fifth and final season of 13 episodes.

And so, my worry going into yesterday's Fringe season premiere was, "How the heck will the show's writers undo everything they wrapped up?" The solution, as revealed in tonight's season premiere, is wonderfully simple, and appropriately Fringe-tastic: by ditching the present completely and jumping to 2036, picking up right where we left off at the end of Season 4's flash-forward episode "Letters of Transit". As you'll recall, in Fringe's version of 2036, the Observers have taken over, the classic Fringe team has been encased in amber since 2015, and Peter and Olivia's daughter, Henrietta (a.k.a. Etta), is all grown up and working for the FBI, trying to and take down the Observers with the help of her partner, Desmond from Lost. (Well, not the exact character… but you know who I'm talking about.) In the episode, the pair managed to find Walter, and freed him from the amber… and he, in turn, led them to where Peter and Astrid were located.

However, at the end of that episode, Olivia was still MIA. Fortunately for us, the show wastes little time, revealing that Olivia's ambered body is As tonight's episode picks up, the hunt for Olivia is on… and apparently, the 'amber gypsies' have cut her out and sold her on the black market. We find her in a most unusual place: as a coffee table of sorts for Markham, the bookstore owner, who's holding out for the possibility of a modern-day Snow White situation. ("She's supposed to wake up and see me as her savior! She's supposed to overlook my height issue…") You see, right before Olivia was trapped in the amber, she was trying to locate the titular device, the Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11… which essentially serves to merge and decrypt memories. In our case, it's to decrypt Walter's memories, which contain the plan he and September put together to defeat the Observers once and for all. However, once the device is found and activated, nothing is found in Walter's head… requiring our team to start from scratch.

If the end-of-episode preview is any indication, we're going to be in 2036 for the next several episodes… if not the entire fifth season. The more I've thought about it, the more I'm excited by this choice, and the possibilities it offers. It's the type of ballsy move I've come to expect from Fringe: even more so than Season 4's jarring shift to a world where our characters have never heard of Peter, this season is bold enough to take the chance to drop us - and our core characters - into a new and largely unfamiliar world, more than twenty years in the future!!! I'm a little bit afraid that the 2036 world won't be as entertainingly rich as the alternate universe… but what they have presented thus far, such as the oppressive carbon monoxide plants, and the $3,000 walnuts, provides a lot of promise.

Plus, there's already a purpose and a mission to what the new Fringe team is doing, which will no doubt provide the necessary momentum to help wrap up the series. The episode makes every effort to establish the danger incurred by the Observers' takeover, chief among them the Observers' pumping of carbon monoxide into our air, ultimately reducing human lifespans to 45 years in the process. Heck, they took out Central Park to put up a carson monoxide plant! (How dare they!) And as personified in the torture-room scene by Windmark, the head Observer, their disdain for humanity is hardly veiled: as he says to Walter, "You seem much more interesting as a human being than as a vegetable. But, quite frankly, all things considered… I don't mind which one you end up." With only 13 hours to work with, it's comforting to know that the show's writers are going to make each hour count, and establishing the major conflicts right off the bat is an important part of that.

On top of that, though, the episode finds a lot of time to explore and re-establish character dynamics and relationships… which is easily accomplishable Certainly, the mother/daughter reunion between Olivia and Etta is wonderful; with the addition of Etta, the Fringe team is essentially a family now. (My apologies to Lincoln Lee… you will never be forgotten!) Also of note is Walter's adjustment to 2036, especially the final scene where he manages to find an undamaged CD, and listens to it in a world where the Observers have essentially destroyed music. It's a powerful moment, acted with tenderness and vulnerability by John Noble that helps sell us on what a horrible place 2036 has become. And given the frequent use of background tunes during the show's scenes in Walter's lab over the years, the scene legitimately earns its value.

But overall, last night's Fringe revved me up for the new season in ways that I wouldn't have thought were possible 24 hours ago… and I'm even more excited than before to see where we're headed. And so, I hope you'll enjoy our coverage of Fringe throughout this final season: for the most part, we'll hope to have reviews posted by Saturday morning. Please join us!

Random notes:

• Tonight's episode has two credited directors… likely due to the fact that production was halted while John Noble was treated for sleep problems. The directors are Miguel Sapochnik (of 2010's Jude Law/Forest Whitaker sci-fi pic Repo Men) and Jeannot Szwarc (who helmed Jaws 2, Somewhere in Time, and Supergirl).
• Fox is continuing the weekly Fringe hashtags; this week's is #TheyAreHere.
• I guess we'll get to enjoy the 2036 Fringe title sequence from here on out, too… "Individuality", "Imagination", "Freedom"… :-D
• Yes, Naughahyde was a very popular premium pleather.
• Tonight's alternate Astrid names: Aspen and Afro!
• The song from the final scene is Yazoo's "Only You". (Fringe has used a fair chunk of music over the years, mainly as background music in Walter's lab… but rarely is the music as prominent as it is here.)
• "Resistance is futile." "I feel like I've heard that before!"
• Who wants to chow down on some egg sticks?

Breaking Bad: Some season-ending thoughts...

In lieu of full-blown reviews of the final two episodes of Breaking Bad this season, here's a few overall thoughts on the episodes, and the season as a whole:

• Is it just me, or did Mike's death in episode 5.07 seem a bit hasty, plot-wise? From a scene-work perspective, the episode was magnificent - Mike silently departing from his granddaughter in the park, the gorgeous final scene of Mike and Walt gazing out into the water (especially the final wide shot where Mike plops to the ground). But, for whatever reason, I just wasn't sold on how the story had gotten us to the point where Walt shot Mike. The episode itself made the best case for justifying it, in how Walt belatedly realized how he could've gotten the list of names from Lydia… and besides, Walt has basically devolved to a point where he believes that murder solves everything (as the prison-shanking montage from the finale demonstrated so vividly), so, to an extent, it seems just enough within character. But still, it just seemed so hasty, compared to the show's slow-burn approach towards these matters. Which leads to…
• Would this season have best been served by a full 13 episodes, instead of just the 8 that we received? Although Mike's death seeded this idea in my head, I really started to convince myself of this during and after the "Crystal Blue Persuasion" meth-making montage. For a show that's taken its sweet, sweet time (4.5 seasons!) covering a single year, it felt jarring to have a montage skip past three months of time… and the extra time would've helped to justify the changes that have happened in Walt's life as a result of the extravagant success of the new meth operation. When Skyler revealed the ginormous pile of money in the storage shed in the finale, it was a staggering sight, to be sure… but I would've loved a bit more justification in the show to show how we've gotten to that point. I also realize that we've still got to burn through nine months of time to get to the season-opening 52nd-birthday flash-forward… but the more I wrestle with it, the more it seems contrary to how the show traditionally operates.
• Even in these final two episodes, the sheer filmmaking skill on display was off the charts. I already mentioned the gorgeous scene where Mike dies, but the opening of the episode - the desert meeting between Walt and the prospective methylamine buyers - was a delicious stand-off for this modern Western. The penultimate episode's montage in the safe-deposit room (complete with the awesome wrist-cam!) was a bouncy bit of fun, too! And the finale's two montages were tremendously executed and edited. The stark combination of the brutal violence, the jazzy music, and Walt looking outside, Godfather Part II-style made for a disturbing, yet memorable, montage. And the "Crystal Blue Persuasion" meth-cooking montage was staggeringly complex and deliriously brilliant in terms of editing, scene transitions, and furthering the show's narrative. (And yes, once I realized what song they were using, I couldn't help but think, "It took them this long to finally pull this song out?" What a fun little moment...)
• I'm still trying to figure out what Todd's angle is in this entire operation; I'm simply convinced that there's more to Todd than what we've been let on thus far. Besides, after three months of working with Walt, I'm sure he's pretty skilled at the specifics of the business at this point… almost dangerously so.
• Walt's teary-eyed re-appearance at Hank's office was downright slapstick-y, compared to what we saw earlier this season. I can't say that I liked it, but the episode needed to get down to business, I guess…
• Even a character like Mike isn't immune to the degradation of a barrel of hydrofluoric acid. Frowny-face!
• All season long, the ricin has threatened to come back into play… and although we got so very, very close in the finale with Lydia, Walt hasn't had to use it… yet.
• Bad-ass quote from Walter, in the hotel room with Todd's "connections": "It can be done exactly how I want it. The only question is, are you the men to do it?"
• So, just how much money is in that storage-shed pile? Somebody do the math… quick! :-)
• The CAT scan in the final act of the finale had to have been shown for a reason… has Skyler's wish for the cancer to return come true?
• That tortured look on Jesse's face after Walt left his house said so much… dammit, who doesn't feel bad and sympathetic for Jesse at this point?
• I doubt you'll disagree with me that next summer's first episode needs to pick up immediately from where Sunday's finale left off. It would be a tremendous disgrace if we don't see how Hank reacts to his mind-blowing discovery. (As an aside, I found it darkly funny how Breaking Bad managed to put the "shit" in the season's final "Holy shit!" moment.)
• Some fun ephemera that's hit the Internet in the past couple of weeks:
• Walt's "Say my name" moment from the desert face-off spurred this fun remix of the Destiny's Child song of the same name.
• Entertainment Weekly dug up the first film appearance of Jonathan Banks, who plays Mike: the 1974 educational film "Linda's Film on Menstruation". Skip to the 1:10 mark, and watch in amazement.
• Also, in amazing revelations: Jonathan Banks was also in the finale of the comedy classic Airplane! Skip to the 0:37 and 1:09 marks.
• Finally, since Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass figured prominently into the season finale, I must post a clip of Homer Simpson's thoughts on Walt Whitman, from the episode "Mother Simpson".

Breaking Bad will return in the summer of 2013 with the final eight episodes of the series… we hope to see you then!